? about relaxing hair.

[silvergirl]

i dont plan on relaxing my hair till dec of next year, which will be about one year an half since my last relaxer. my question is how do i go about relaxing 12 inches of new growth thats still attached to 10 inches of relaxed ends??

i plan on getting it done professionally, but should i have my stylist relax one side of my head first then the other? i really dont want to have all that new growth only to have it all wash down the drain because the relaxer was left on to long.

has anyone else has a subtantial amount of new growth that needed relaxing? how did you acomplish the best results without overproccessing your hair?

 

[slwe415]

bumping

 

[sillygurl18]

bumping

 

[DigitalRain]

Is your natural hair texture drastically different from the relaxed? If so, I wouldn't wait that long. If it isnt it may be okay. Why not try every 3 months? That would easier than waiting a whole year.

 

[Chanteuse]

Your hair is more likely to come out underprocessed than overprocessed. The longer you keep your hair in it's natural state, the more resistant to relaxers it will be. I would just make sure that your stylist does NOT use a SUPER strength relaxer to try and prevent this. Underprocessed hair can be corrected but over processed hair can't be.

Also, make sure that you wear your hair in a way that will be easy for the stylist to see exactly where your new growth ends and relaxed hair begins.

I let my hair grow out for 9 months w/ out relaxing and when I did get get a relaxer, I was wearing my hair curly. My stylist apparantly couldn't tell where the new growth was and she underestimated it - leaving me w/ some wavy, underprocessed, a small part that was completely natural, and bone straight ends. It was a nightmare trying to even it back up and I eventually just trimmed it away.

 

[silvergirl]

oh my gosh.. i def dont want to trim away my relaxed ends, its just that right now since i stopped relaxing my hair has grown so much.. an ive retained ALL my growth. i have 5 inches of new growth so far an actually its alot easier to manage than i thought. i have 3b/c hair... some ppl say it 2b/c im not sure yet.. but i dont have a hard time controlling it. the reason i dont want to go completly natural is because i like striaght styles better an i think relaxing once is better than pressing or f;at ironing my hair every few days??? am i wrong?

anyways the thought of having to chop off all my hair is too scary i might just relax in the end of may instead which will make it one year. i was hoping to only have to relax my hair once a year from now on.

 

[Chanteuse]

I trimmed my ends b/c my stylist didn't get to the end of my new growth. The part that she did get to was alright - just underprocessed a little. You won't have to cut your hair off just b/c you waited a long time for a touchup as long as you have your hair in a way that does not camouflage your new growth.
I think that 6 mos or a year would work. Good luck!

 

[Chanteuse]

I trimmed my ends b/c my stylist didn't get to the end of my new growth. The part that she did get to was alright - just underprocessed a little. You won't have to cut your hair off just b/c you waited a long time for a touchup as long as you have your hair in a way that does not camouflage your new growth.
I think that 6 mos or a year would work. Good luck!

 

[localhost]

[ QUOTE ]
silvergirl said:
oh my gosh.. i def dont want to trim away my relaxed ends, its just that right now since i stopped relaxing my hair has grown so much.. an ive retained ALL my growth. i have 5 inches of new growth so far an actually its alot easier to manage than i thought. ]b]i have 3b/c hair... some ppl say it 2b/c im not sure yet.. but i dont have a hard time controlling it. the reason i dont want to go completly natural is because i like striaght styles better an i think relaxing once is better than pressing or f;at ironing my hair every few days??? am i wrong?[/b]

anyways the thought of having to chop off all my hair is too scary i might just relax in the end of may instead which will make it one year. i was hoping to only have to relax my hair once a year from now on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi silvergirl

The fact that you have 3b/c maybe 2b/c tells me that you'll most likely be better off remaining natural. Because you stated that your newgrowth is not hard to manage, you should be able accomplish a straight style easily without the use of a relaxer and without damaging your hair. If you haven't already, take a look at hairlove's album because it sounds to me that you two may have a similar hairtype, and she's transiting out of a relaxer and straightens her hair with a flat iron/curling iron occasionally. You could rock a number of styles in addition to straight styles! Curls, waves, ahhh, the possibilities!

BUT, if you're set on relaxing (which is okay because the choice yours), the proper way to do it would be to coat your 10 inches of already relaxed hair with a petroleum product of some sort to reduce overlapping. Also, as stated by someone else, your hair may come out underprocessed since you'll have a ton of newgrowth, so it may take a few applications to get the straightness you desire. As someone already mentioned, it would be kind of risky to wait so long, maybe get a touchup now (since you already have 5 inches) and repeat the process every 6 months.

HTH